There was once an old lady named Pamela who lived deep in the forest. She had lived a productive life. She had children and a husband. However her husband had passed away and her children had moved away to start their own families. Her children asked and begged her to move with them because nobody lived around her. As time went on the children were unable to visit their mother because they had responsibilities of their own.

Pamela did not want to leave her home because it had become an important familiar part of her life. She had become old and set in her ways and was unable to accept a change in her life.

As time went on Pamela had become more in tune with the nature around her home. There was a pond that she could look upon from a window in the back of her home. From time to time beautiful white swans visited the pond. Pamela enjoyed watching their graceful movements in the water.

Pamela decided to keep herself busy to take the emptiness out of her life. She fed the swans bread so that she could enjoy their company. She built a beautiful home out of straw for them to nest in. As time went on she was blessed with more and more swans. Later she started to feed the squirrels and deer.

As time went on the animals became so dependent on her for food. They forgot how to find the food. The swans forgot how to fish. The squirrels forgot how to find nuts. The deer forgot that they could eat the shrubs around them because they thought everything had to be fed to them.

One-day Pamela’s old age finally caught up to her and she was no longer able to take care of the animals or even herself. The animals started to cry outside her house because they were hungry. She wanted to feed them, but was unable to. Minute after minute she heard the animals cry and slowly realized that she had hurt them because she took away their ability to survive. She started to cry because nobody was there to help her and the animals or so she thought.

For sometime gnomes had observed her and had become very concerned about her and the animals. They came into the house and called Pamela’s name. She couldn’t see them. Where are you? she asked. Look at the floor, the gnomes replied. She was shocked to see how small they were and asked who they were and was told that Gnomes had always been around her.

From that point on the Gnomes comforted Pamela in her last few days. When Pamela died she was at peace knowing that the Gnomes would teach the animals how take care of themselves to survive.